Mount Hood featured in new coin series

Thursday

Mar 25, 2010 at 2:00 AM

The image is being unveiled by the Mint on Wednesday as part of the new America the Beautiful Quarters series honoring national parks and national sights in the 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia.

Lynne Terry

PORTLAND — An artist for the U.S. Mint was handed the difficult task last year of capturing the panoramic drama of Mount Hood on a quarter.

Phebe Hemphill studied drawings, sculpted molds, poured clay, fine-tuned the bas relief and then repeated the process until she had a design that was crisp, lush and picture-perfect.

The image is being unveiled by the Mint on Wednesday as part of the new America the Beautiful Quarters series honoring national parks and national sights in the 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia.

"Mount Hood is going to be on quarters that 300 million Americans will see," said Edmund Moy, director of the Mint.

The image of Mount Hood with Lost Lake and a forest in the foreground is as iconic as the mountain itself, Moy said.

"You look at it, and you know it's Mount Hood," he said. "She was able to make the lake look like water, and the mountain looks rugged. That's difficult to do."

Hemphill, who also designed the Grand Canyon National Park coin, said the Mount Hood image was the more difficult.

"You have this long landscape, and you're trying to capture this great mountain in the distance," she said. "It's a challenge, but I think I pulled it off fairly well."

Americans can judge for themselves at the unveiling of all 56 coins in the series in a webcast from Washington, D.C., at 9 a.m. PDT Wednesday at americathebeautifulquarters.gov.

This is the second round of commemorative state quarters. The first, 50 State Quarters, ran from 1999 through 2008 and included Crater Lake National Park on Oregon's coin.

The Mint commissioned four potential designs for the Mount Hood coin, and the governor's office, U.S. Forest Service and other federal officials gave their feedback on the designs.

The 56 coins will be issued over the next 12 years, based on when the sites were established. The first quarter — commemorating Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas — will be released in April. The coin for Mount Hood National Forest, designated in 1893, will be released in November. All will have a restored version of the 1932 portrait of George Washington by John Flanagan on the head's side.

The Mint also will offer a teaching map of the states and territories with a hole in each area for kids (and adults) to save the quarters.

The coin will likely inspire dreams of trips to Mount Hood, including by the artist.

"I've never been to Oregon before," Hemphill said. "I'd really like to go."